The report also suggests that while the United States ranked #6 among 36 nations and four regions considered, the U.S. is losing ground competitively, and ranked last in its improvement of its innovation capacity and competitiveness over the last decade. The report's authors, Robert D. Atkinson and Scott M. Andes, write:

"Like an aging sports dynasty that has won the Super Bowl for many years but blithely ignores the rising performance of younger teams, many in the United States still persist in believing that the United States is number 1 and that it is its destiny to remain so almost irregardless of what it does."